Business in the Age of Mass Extinction

“Nature and its vital contributions to people … are deteriorating worldwide.” These are the opening words of the executive summary from a new, critical report from the United Nations. The New York Times put it another way in the headline to its article on the report: “Civilization Is Accelerating Extinction and Altering the Natural World at a Pace ‘Unprecedented in Human History.’”

Our deflated Earth!

While curling up into the fetal position and hiding under the covers in defeat may be your first instinct, let’s step back and ask and answer some key questions first.

What does the report say? Let me be clear that I have not read the full 1,500 pages yet. But the summary for policymakers is a pithy, if depressing, 40 pages. Read even the first couple pages and you’ll get it. The short version is that through a combination of human-caused climate change and the near complete occupation of the planet by humans, we’re destroying habitats and species at an unreal rate (similar to previous extinction events from, you know, asteroids). Besides some increase in agricultural and forestry production, most natural systems that support us — like rich soil carbon and pollinator health (i.e., bees) — are degraded. And current goals for conservation are not enough to stop this train wreck.

Read the story from the Harvard Business Review by Andrew Winston - “Business in the Age of Mass Extinction.”

The Rapid Decline Of The Natural World Is A Crisis Even Bigger Than Climate Change

Nature is in freefall and the planet’s support systems are so stretched that we face widespread species extinctions and mass human migration unless urgent action is taken. 

That’s the warning hundreds of scientists are preparing to give, and it’s stark.

Left top: A durian plantation in Raub, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. Soaring demand for durians in China is being blamed for a new wave of deforestation in Malaysia.  Right top: A palm oil plantation encroaches on a wildlife reserve in Sabah, Malaysia. Left bottom: The Kinabatangan River flows through a wildlife reserve in Sabah, Malaysia. The overuse of pesticides during the heavy equatorial rains creates a deadly runoff into the fragile river and its tributaries. Right bottom: A palm oil plantation and factory in Sabah, Malaysia.

The last year has seen a slew of brutal and terrifying warnings about the threat climate change poses to life. Far less talked about but just as dangerous, if not more so, is the rapid decline of the natural world. The felling of forests, the over-exploitation of seas and soils, and the pollution of air and water are together driving the living world to the brink, according to a huge three-year, U.N.-backed landmark study to be published in May.

The study from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform On Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), expected to run to over 8,000 pages, is being compiled by more than 500 experts in 50 countries. It is the greatest attempt yet to assess the state of life on Earth and will show how tens of thousands of species are at high risk of extinction, how countries are using nature at a rate that far exceeds its ability to renew itself, and how nature’s ability to contribute food and fresh water to a growing human population is being compromised in every region on earth.

Read the story from HuffPost by John Vidal - “The Rapid Decline Of The Natural World Is A Crisis Even Bigger Than Climate Change.”

Climate and economic risks 'threaten 2008-style systemic collapse

The gathering storm of human-caused threats to climate, nature and economy pose a danger of systemic collapse comparable to the 2008 financial crisis, according to a new report that calls for urgent and radical reform to protect political and social systems.

Hurricane Florence in North Carolina in 2018. The report
 fears relentless floods and fires in the US could threaten
financial institutions.

The study says the combination of global warming, soil infertility, pollinator loss, chemical leaching and ocean acidification is creating a “new domain of risk”, which is hugely underestimated by policymakers even though it may pose the greatest threat in human history.

“A new, highly complex and destabilised ‘domain of risk’ is emerging – which includes the risk of the collapse of key social and economic systems, at local and potentially even global levels,” warns the paper from the Institute for Public Policy Research. “This new risk domain affects virtually all areas of policy and politics, and it is doubtful that societies around the world are adequately prepared to manage this risk.”

Until recently, most studies of environmental risk tended to examine threats in isolation: climate scientists examined disruption to weather systems, biologists focused on ecosystem loss and economists calculated potential damages from intensifying storms and droughts. But a growing body of research is assessing how the interplay of these factors can create a cascade of tipping points in human society as well as the natural world.

Read the story from The Guardian by Jonathon Watts - “Climate and economic risks 'threaten 2008-style systemic collapse.”

Stop biodiversity loss or we could face our own extinction, warns UN

The world must thrash out a new deal for nature in the next two years or humanity could be the first species to document our own extinction, warns the United Nation’s biodiversity chief.

 Deforestation in Indonesian to make way for a palm oil concession. 

Ahead of a key international conference to discuss the collapse of ecosystems, Cristiana Pașca Palmer said people in all countries need to put pressure on their governments to draw up ambitious global targets by 2020 to protect the insects, birds, plants and mammals that are vital for global food production, clean water and carbon sequestration.

“The loss of biodiversity is a silent killer,” she told the Guardian. “It’s different from climate change, where people feel the impact in everyday life. With biodiversity, it is not so clear but by the time you feel what is happening, it may be too late.”

Read the story from The Guardian by Jonathon Watts - “Stop biodiversity loss or we could face our own extinction, warns UN.”

The Queen and Sir David Attenborough join forces for new nature documentary

In scenes from the upcoming show,  The Queen’s Green Planet, the pair can be seen walking around a park and discussing their shared passion for nature.

Nature fan: The Queen reveals her love of trees. 

Attenborough explains: “Trees have been a part of the Queen’s life all her life.

“Join me as I take a walk around her garden and learn of the Queen’s dream of making a global network of trees.”

Read the Aimee Grant Cumberbatch story from the Evening Standard - “The Queen and Sir David Attenborough join forces for new nature documentary.”

Self-interest standing in the way of a fix for the Murray-Darling

Genelle Haldane, my desk calendar tells me, has said that "only until all of mankind lives in harmony with nature can we truly decree ourselves to be an intelligent species". I've no idea who Haldane is or was, but she's right.

Illustration: Simon Letch

And you don't need to be terribly intelligent to realise it. Even most economists get it. It's blindingly obvious that the economy – that is, human production and consumption of goods and services - exists within the natural environment.

The economy is sustained by the natural resources the environment supplies to it and by the natural processes that are part of the human production process. We rely on the ecosystem also to deal with the mountains of waste and emissions we generate.

It's equally clear that economic activity can damage the environment and its ability to function. We're exploiting the environment in ways that are literally unsustainable, and must stop doing so before the damage becomes irreparable.

Read the comment by Ross Gittins in the Age - “Self-interest standing in the way of a fix for the Murray-Darling.”

Father and son build this minimalist, energy-efficient family cabin (Video)

What does it take to build a small, sustainable home close to nature? 

The energy efficient family cabin.

For William and Daniel Yudchitz -- father and son and both architects -- that meant thinking in a modular way for fitting the interior spaces of their 340-square-foot family cabin on the shores of Lake Superior, as well as carefully selecting materials and designing custom-made, multipurpose furniture that maximizes space. Seen previously in Lloyd's post, we now get a personal tour of how this energy-efficient home works via Fair Companies.

Read/watch the Treehugger story by Kimberley Mok - “Father and son build this minimalist, energy-efficient family cabin (Video).”

Keep calm: reasons to head for the park not the beach

My father was always disapproving of people who excused their failure to turn up to his Sunday meeting by saying they'd been "worshipping God in the great outdoors". But the older I get, and the more I read, the more I think it's not such a bad idea.

Illustration: Andrew Dyson.

I'm much attracted by the American biologist Edward O. Wilson's hypothesis of biophilia, that humans have an innate tendency to seek connection to nature, for its calming effects.

Read the piece by Ross Gittins in today’s Melbourne Age - “Keep calm: reasons to head for the park not the beach.”

Nature Inspires Climate-Friendly Architecture

Scientists who invent things often look to nature for inspiration. Their goal is to mimic biological systems in order to create new consumer products, or improve existing ones. The 1941 introduction of Velcro, for example, grew out of a Swiss engineer’s curiosity about why Burdock seeds clung to his coat — and that of his dog — when they were walking through the woods. Today, responding to the growing urgency of climate change, researchers are turning to biology for ideas to reduce emissions and save energy.

The pinecone - looking to nature for climate answers 

Cordt Zollfrank, a chemist, forest scientist and materials researcher at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), thinks he’s found one potential source that could turn energy-sapping buildings into energy-saving ones: tree cones.

Cones produced by such trees as pines, spruce, hemlock and fir respond naturally to different degrees of humidity by opening and closing, without consuming any electrical energy in doing so. Designing window blinds based on their mechanical properties that could open and close in response to moisture — but use no energy in the process — could conserve a lot of energy. 

Many buildings (as well as homes) use motorized blinds or shades that run on plug-in electricity or batteries.

Read the Nexus Media story by Marlene Simons - “Nature Inspires Climate-Friendly Architecture.”

Nature never rests, but we need to

Nature never rests.

Strangely, humans, who have disrupted nature, do need rest and so Beneath the Wisteria will be taking a break, having a rest, this month.

Subsequently, we will not gather Beneath the Wisteria in Shepparton’s Maude St mall and so our next gathering will be on Saturday, January 27,  2018, at 11:00 am - hopefully, we will see you then.

And, in the meantime, enjoy whatever it is you are doing and take care.

Summing up this year, 2017, from a climate change point of view, it is worth noting that there has been, in my view, a significant shift in attitudes toward climate change with people being much more conscious of the dilemma and so eager to hear about what they can do to mitigate our carbon dioxide emissions and adapt to the inevitable unfolding societal changes.

Please join us on January 27 discuss 2017 and consider what might eventuate in 2018.

Dickens' 'soft black drizzle' chronicled early signs of global warming

Helen McGregor - the University of Wollongong 
researcher was the lead author of a paper illustrating
 a much earlier start date to climate change.

When Charles Dickens, the English novelist, was detailing the "soft black drizzle" of pollution over London, he might inadvertently have been chronicling the early signs of global warming.

New research led by Australian scientists has pegged back the timing of when humans had clearly begun to change the climate to the 1830s.

That's about half a century before the first comprehensive instrumental records began – and about the time Dickens began his novels depicting Victorian Britain's rush to industrialise.

The findings, published on Thursday in the journal Nature, were based on natural records of climate variation in the world's oceans and continents, including those found in corals, ice cores, tree rings and the changing chemistry of stalagmites in caves.

Helen McGregor, an ARC future fellow at the University of Wollongong and one of the paper's lead authors, said it was "quite a surprise" the international research teams of dozens of scientists had been able to detect a signal of climate change emerging in the tropical oceans and the Arctic from the 1830s.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Global warming signal can be traced back to the 1830s, climate scientists say.”

David Spratt gives a 'Climate Reality Check'

Scientists say they are shocked and stunned by the “unprecedented” NASA temperature figures for February 2016, which are 1.65°C higher than the beginning of the twentieth century and around 1.9°C warmer than the pre-industrial level.

Stefan Rahmstorf of Germany’s Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research says we are now “in a kind of climate emergency”.

Like the dramatic and unexpected “big melt” in the Arctic in 2007, we are now in another moment of terrifying climate reality, for Nature cannot be fooled. The recent data suggests it has taken just three months for the Paris climate accord — with its escalating emissions to 2030 — to become a relic, completely disconnected to the task the world now faces.

So what is the reality after Paris? Read the Breakthrough report by David Spratt.

Removing C02 from the atmosphere is 'risky business'

Radical new ways of removing CO2 from the atmosphere could prove to be a risky business – according to an environmental scientist at the University of East Anglia.

Techniques put forward include growing crops to be burned in power stations, large-scale tree plantations, adding biochar to soil, adding nutrients to sea water to boost plankton and seaweed, and using chemicals to extract CO2 from the atmosphere – to be buried deep underground.

But a comment piece published today in Nature shows that most, if not all, of these methods pose environmental risks - and that much more research is needed before the wheels are set in motion on global-scale ‘climate geoengineering’ schemes.

Read the environmentalresearchweb  story  - “Radical CO2 removal projects could be a risky business.”

Good advice from Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

 

 

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”

Our disconnect with nature is the key to global warming

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lobal Warming is attributed to many things, but writing his column on truthdig, Chris Hedges sees this dilemma as arising from our disconnect from nature.

He writes: “The wind on the peak of Mount Washington—the East Coast’s highest point, where some of the most erratic and treacherous weather in the world occurs—reached 60 miles an hour the day I was there with my family. Backpackers huddled in the biting chill next to large boulders or congregated in the lobby of a snack bar and gift shop that extract money from the thousands of tourists who ride the cog railroad or drive up the auto road from the base of the mountain each summer.”

Read more - “Evoking the Wrath of Nature”.

Climate changes doubles Europe's chances of heatwaves: Nature

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ver much of Europe, the sweltering heatwave of late June and early July has barely subsided. But already, scientists have analysed the possible role of climate change, concluding that global warming made such an event at least twice as likely over much of the continent.

 In some cities, climate change has made comparable heatwaves four times more likely, they say.

The speedy study comes from a collaboration involving the US-based nonprofit environmental news organization Climate Central and an international team of climate researchers.

They posted results on 2 July based on the sweltering temperatures forecasted, and updated their work on 10 July using the previous week’s actual temperatures, with similar conclusions.

Read the Nature story - “Speedy study claims climate change doubled chances of European heatwave”.

Global waming threatens the very thing upon which all life depends

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lobal warming threatens to change irreparably the state of nature upon which all life on earth depends.

The website, Wisdom Pills argues that if people are to connect more with anything this year, let it be nature.

Wisdom Pills has a mission that says: “Our mission? To bring you the best meds you can get, completely free of charge and possessing only long-term, positive side-effects. Each post we offer is just that: a pill designed to dissolve negativity, anxiety, unhappiness and ego, and to strengthen your reserves of insight, understanding and humour.”

Discussing nature it says, “It will not only allow you to connect more to yourself but others as well. It is fuel for the soul. Increased vitality exists above and beyond the energizing effects of physical activity and social interaction that are often associated with our forays into the natural world.”

Read the story - “4 Ways Nature is Irreplaceable to Your Health and Well-being” – and through understand a little more why we should all do what we can to mitigate the cause of global warming.

Mother Nature always bats last, and she always bats 1000' - Rob Watson

R

obert "Rob" Watson coined the phrase “Mother Nature always bats last, and she always bats 1000."

Rob Watson -"Nature
bats last and she
always bats 1000."

The environmentalist, market transformation expert, international leader in the green building movement and CEO and Chief Scientist of The ECON Group, once said, "Mother nature is just chemistry, biology and physics. That's all she is. You cannot sweet-talk her. You cannot spin her. You cannot tell her that the oil companies say climate change is a hoax. No, Mother Nature is going to do whatever chemistry, biology and physics dictate.”

He then added, “Mother Nature always bats last, and she always bats 1000."

“Batting 1000” is baseball parlance for perfection, infallibility and never getting anything wrong.

And now actor Julia Roberts embraces the role of Mother Nature - “Nature Is Speaking – Julia Roberts is Mother Nature” – forcing us to consider just how insignificant we are.

Pressure mounts on advisers as Paris draws closer

A

s global negotiations fail on emissions reductions, scientific advisers need to resist pressure to fit the facts to the failure, warns Oliver Geden.

Writing in Nature, Geden says, “Disenchantment has set in well ahead of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris in December.

“Scientists, policy-makers and the public already accept that progress will not be enough to keep global average temperature rise within the 2 °C limit set at the 2010 UN climate summit.

“The negotiations' goal has become what is politically possible, not what is environmentally desirable. Gone is a focus on establishing a global, 'top down' target for stabilizing emissions or a carbon budget that is legally binding.

“The Paris meeting will focus on voluntary, 'bottom up' commitments by individual states to reduce emissions,” he writes.

Read his story - “Climate advisers must maintain integrity”.

Corporations claim they are 'green', but the world is acutally getting greener

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any corporations claim they are “green”, but research has shown that the world is actually getting greener.

The research, published in Nature Climate Change, is explored in article on The Conversation entitled: “Despite decades of deforestation, the Earth is getting greener”.

The Nature article shows that the world has actually got greener over the past decade and this is, The Conversation reports: “Despite ongoing deforestation in South America and Southeast Asia, we found that the decline in these regions has been offset by recovering forests outside the tropics, and new growth in the drier savannas and shrublands of Africa and Australia”.

Pointing out that more plants may mean more absorption of carbon dioxide.” If so, this will slow but not stop climate change,” The Conversation points out.